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Issue 80: the rise of digital materials; and cheese

English Teaching Professional, (80), May, 2013

Anyone detecting a slightly cheesy smell to the May issue of English Teaching professional will not be surprised to learn that three of our contributors have managed to work that most fragrant of foodstuffs into their articles! I advise serious turophiles to turn straight to the Scrapbook to feast on Ian Waring Green’s account of amorous goats, cheese-fuelled traffic hazards, de Gaulle’s doubts about whether one can govern a country possessed of 246 varieties of cheese – plus the delights of cheeses full of writhing maggots. (There are more cheese jokes below to whet your appetite.)

For a more linguistic angle on the subject, look no further than page 40, where John Potts employs the same de Gaulle quotation to discuss the question of whether or not cheese(s) can be counted. Alan Marsh’s definition of a delicatessen (a place where you buy cheeses ...) adds further ammunition to the debate.

As well as warning of the difficulties of government, the French president’s words can be interpreted as a celebration of diversity – and this is something else which is well represented in this issue. In our main feature, Marjorie Rosenberg celebrates the diversity of learning styles to be found within a single class, and she suggests ways of implementing a more inclusive teaching style in order to cater for students with differing learning preferences.

For David Heathfield, sharing stories from other languages and across cultures is the key to an all-inclusive classroom. The website he recommends is an excellent source of stories from all around the world.

Anita Rao Mysore and Felicia Lincoln train teachers who will work in contexts where a specific type of English language learner is placed in school classes alongside more mainstream students. They recommend ways to make lessons more welcoming and inclusive for these students as they are faced with the challenge of keeping up with the others.

ETp Forum

Also in Issue 86 of ETp, Michael Rundell reports on Macmillan’s decision to stop producing paper copies of their dictionary and go totally digital. We would be interested to hear your views on this issue and on the growing trend amongst the ELT publishers to favour digital materials over print. So the questions we are posing in ETp Forum are these:

Do you welcome the rise of digital materials and the demise of printed books?

What effect will it have on your teaching?

Have your say by commenting below

Say cheese!

1 What cheese is made backwards? 2 What cheeses would you eat on a windy day?3 What cheese do you use to encourage a bear?4 What does cheese say to itself in the mirror?5 What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?6 Can you make cheese without milk?7 What type of music does cheese like?8 Why does cheese look sane?